WARNING: Do not use .mobi domains for your tracker!

I constantly try and experiment with things, test new stuff and we use different domains for every single major test we do, whether it is testing a new traffic source, or a mega global offer. To make a long story short, we decided why not try a .mobi domain for our tracker domain! One very cool one was available, so I regged it and instructed my assistant to set it up, and get some campaigns up to test.

Today I wake up, check stats and traffic source says 9600 clicks, tracker says 5021 clicks – I’m like WTF! I check if server was down by looking at day parting/hourly breakdown for the test campaigns – nope, everything looks consistent. Next, I try and open my own tracker links from my mobile – and dang, I can’t. Try my other mobile (its onanother carrier) and it works. Holy shit, this could be it!

We setup another test, this time using a .com domain, and long behold it works on my phone and after running $100 worth of data, the click discreptency is all within acceptable levels. So yes, expensive $370 dollar loss lesson, let it serve you well – do not use .mobi domains for your trackers

Didn’t really notice any issues with it for a lander, but for a tracker it gave huge click discrepancy problems.

Sergey Spec

It’s magic!

Can you give me more details (phone model and browser, maybe domain name)?

Developme

I use .mobi domain for one of my tracker. It works well, no difference comparing .com or anything else. I guess something else could happen with your tracker, or even maybe time passed for NS servers wasn’t enough

> Next, I try and open my own tracker links from my mobile – and dang, I can’t. Try my other mobile (its onanother carrier) and it works

It somehow confirms my version regarding time. Different carriers use different DNS servers, and it requires some time for new domain to be distributed to all nameservers (specs say it can take up to 48 hours)

How much time passed between the moment you registered domain (and set NS for it) and the moment you started the traffic?

This was a problem months ago, they seem to have fixed it. Now a new problem that’s happening in many places is people can’t type in their emails if its one of the new extensions, sign up forms reject them as invalid emails. I’m talking .agency, .reviews, etc.